FORBES CHAMBERS - Key Persons
Irving Wallach has been at the bar for almost 20 years. Previously, for 12 years he was a solicitor with the Legal Aid Commission (principally as a solicitor advocate and also instructed in the Court of Criminal Appeal), Health Care Complaints Commission (instructed in the "Chelmsford Doctors" proceedings) and South Coast Aboriginal Legal Service.
Irving is on the Legal Aid Commission's Panel of barristers for complex criminal matters and has also conducted prosecutions for government agencies, including WorkCover. He was the Chairperson of the Nurses Tribunal for 12 years until 2005.
With a broad spectrum of experience in criminal law, he has defended clients in matters ranging from murder, drug supply and importation (including commercial quantities), sexual offences, fraud and white collar crime, culpable/dangerous driving, bail applications, occupational health and safety ("WHS") prosecutions, professional disciplinary matters and coronial inquests. Preparation of evidence by medical and other experts, and cross-examination of them, is a specialty.
Job Titles:
- Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of Law
Kirsten is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of Law at UNSW where she co-teaches a course involving advocacy, evidence and ethics and has also lectured occasionally in evidence law at the University of Sydney Law School.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Bar Association Criminal Law Committee
Lester Fernandez focuses on:
Appeals to the Court of Criminal Appeal;
Appeals from courts, tribunals and authorities to the Supreme Court;
Supreme Court trials, particularly murder trials;
Supreme Court sentences and bail applications;
Supreme Court applications in a variety of criminal and quasi criminal matters;
District Court trials, sentences and appeals.
In addition to his criminal practice, Lester also has a significant practice appearing in:
Coronial inquests, as both Counsel Assisting and acting for interested parties;
Professional disciplinary hearings in the Civil and Administrative Tribunal;
A wide variety of Administrative law matters in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Lester has been a member of the Bar Association Criminal Law Committee since 2009. He is the Bar Association's representative to the Local Court of NSW. Lester is also a member of the Bar Association's Education Committee.
Lester was awarded the Con Varnavas Award for first place in the February 2007 Bar Exams, and was awarded the Christopher Gee QC Memorial Prize for Advocacy and Evidence for the October 2007 Bar Practice Course.
Before coming to the Bar Lester was a solicitor for 13 years, which included 10 years at Legal Aid NSW. Lester was a Law Society of NSW Accredited Specialist in Criminal Law. He was Chair of the NSW Young Lawyers Criminal Law Committee, and a member of the Law Society Criminal Law Committee.
Lester was the Managing Editor of the award-winning second and third editions of "A Practitioner's Guide to Criminal Law". He has written/presented over 50 papers on a wide range of topics in criminal law. Lester is also a presenter and an advocacy instructor in the Bar Association's Bar Practice Course. Lester is also an instructor with the Australian Advocacy Institute.
Peggy Dwyer was admitted to the Bar after more than 10 years work as a solicitor, specialising firstly in criminal and later coronial law.
From 2005 to 2008, Peggy was the Managing Criminal Lawyer for the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA), the largest criminal law practice in the Northern Territory. In addition to managing the service, she appeared in jury trials in the Northern Territory Supreme Court and in appeals in NSW Supreme Court and the Court of Criminal Appeal. Peggy has also appeared as junior counsel in the High Court of Australia.
Peggy was an Associate to Justice Michael Kirby in the High Court of Australia between the years 1995 and 1996.
Job Titles:
- Co - Chair
- Adjunct Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law
Rebecca is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales. Rebecca has lectured at UNSW since 2010 in Criminal Law, Litigation, Evidence and Social Justice and contributed to the development of the criminal law and advocacy components of the UNSW's practical legal training program, which she has also taught. Rebecca has also lectured criminal law subjects at the University of Sydney, UTS and Charles Sturt University.
Rebecca is the co-chair and one of the founding members of the Bugmy Bar Book project, which aims to assist legal practitioners and the courts in understanding the impact of experiences of disadvantage in the context of sentencing.
Sam Pararajasingham is a criminal defence barrister specialising in trials before juries and appeals against conviction and sentence to the Court of Criminal Appeal.
Graduating with Honours from the University of Sydney, Sam commenced practice as a solicitor at a top tier corporate law firm, Minter Ellison Lawyers. Shortly thereafter Sam decided to pursue a career in the criminal law working as a solicitor at the Aboriginal Legal Service in regional NSW. He also assisted Phillip Boulten SC and Murugan Thangaraj SC with legal research tasks.
In 2011 Sam commenced practice at the Bar. Sam has appeared in jury trials across the state, defending Accused persons charged with serious criminal matters ranging from matters of complex fraud to murder and drug trafficking. He is currently briefed for the defence in a prosecution against section 27 of the Charter of the UN Security Act 1945. The first of its kind in Australia.
Scott initially worked as a solicitor in Sydney, then from 1993 to 1995 with the WALS in the west of NSW; 1995 & 1996 with the NAALAS in Darwin; 1997 & 1998, with Southern & Western Regional Aboriginal Corp. for Justice in the west of Sydney and as principal solicitor; then to the bar in Sydney.
Job Titles:
- Solicitor With the Aboriginal Legal Service